A wet day on the Gold Coast is not a lost day. From Victoria Square Apartments, five undercover spots sit within a 14 minute walk or a 10 minute drive, from The Star to Event Cinemas and HOTA Gallery. Here is the rainy-day circuit we hand our guests, in the order that flows best.
Where do you start a rainy day near Victoria Square?
Start at The Star Gold Coast, a flat 12 minute walk from our front door. Follow Victoria Avenue away from the beach, cross the Gold Coast Highway at the lights and take Casino Drive over the bridge onto Broadbeach Island. The whole complex is indoor and climate-controlled, with a restaurant line-up that runs from the casual Food Quarter to the Italian terrace at Cucina Vivo, plus bars, live entertainment and a secure undercover car park if you would rather drive the three minutes. Budget a long lunch here, roughly two hours, and you have stayed completely dry while the shower passes. The gaming floor is 18 plus, but the restaurants and theatre foyer welcome all ages through the day.
What is the best rainy-day option with kids?
Event Cinemas at Pacific Fair is the reliable answer, a 14 minute walk along Hooker Boulevard or a five minute drive with four hours of free undercover parking. The complex sits on Level 1 of the centre and runs sessions from mid-morning until late, with Gold Class recliners, 4DX motion seating and an IMAX screen alongside the standard cinemas. It suits every age, from a matinee for little ones to a blockbuster for teenagers, and a family session with snacks lands in the mid cost band. Guests keep mentioning how easy the timing is here: check the sessions on the way over and you rarely wait more than 40 minutes for the next start.
Is HOTA Gallery worth the trip in the rain?
HOTA, the Home of the Arts at 135 Bundall Road, is the one worth the 10 minute drive north. The gallery is fully indoor across several levels, general entry is free seven days a week, and the current headline show is This Moment, drawn from the White Rabbit Collection of Chinese contemporary art. Give it 90 minutes to two hours, longer if you stop at the rooftop for the view over the parklands. There is a cafe and the Exhibitionist Bar on site, so a rainy morning of art can roll straight into lunch without stepping outside. It suits curious kids and adults alike, and the free entry makes it the low-cost anchor of the day.
Where can adults spend a wet evening?
If the rain settles in for the night, Draculas Cabaret Restaurant on Hooker Boulevard turns the weather into an excuse. It is a fully indoor dinner-and-show venue mixing comedy, live music, burlesque and aerial acrobatics, with the current production Lucid on stage now. The show is rated MA15 plus, so it is strictly a grown-ups night, and a dinner-and-show ticket sits in the upper cost band for a special occasion. It is a five minute drive or a 15 minute walk from Victoria Square Apartments, and the whole evening, three courses and the performance, runs to around three hours under one roof.
How do you keep it dry between stops?
The trick is the covered arcades at Pacific Fair. The centre is not fully enclosed, but its retail arcades, the cinema wing and the indoor dining stretches are, so a wet afternoon of browsing 400-plus stores stays comfortable if you keep to the covered runs. It sits directly across from the Broadbeach South tram station, so if the rain is heavy you can hop two stops on the G:link rather than walk. Trading runs seven days from around 9am, with late nights on Thursdays, and the undercover car park means you finish the day without a dash to the car.
Rainy-day Surfers FAQs
What is there to do in Surfers Paradise when it rains?
Plenty within a short walk or drive of Victoria Square Apartments. The Star Gold Coast has indoor dining and entertainment 12 minutes away on foot, Event Cinemas at Pacific Fair runs sessions all day, and HOTA Gallery offers free indoor art a 10 minute drive north. None of it needs the beach to cooperate.
Is HOTA Gallery free to visit?
Yes. General entry to the HOTA Gallery in Bundall is free, seven days a week, with only some special exhibitions ticketed. It is fully indoor across several levels, so it is one of the easiest wet-weather half-days on the coast, and the rooftop has a cafe and bar if you want to linger.
Is Pacific Fair undercover?
Parts of it are. Pacific Fair mixes open-air walkways with fully enclosed retail arcades, the Event Cinemas complex and indoor dining, so on a wet day you can stay dry by sticking to the covered zones. The car park is undercover, and it sits directly across from the Broadbeach South tram station.
Can you walk to these places from Broadbeach in the rain?
Most of them, yes. The Star is a flat 12 minute walk and Pacific Fair around 14, both on footpathed streets. For HOTA you will want the car or a rideshare, as it is a 10 minute drive. Pack an umbrella for the walk and the rest of the day is spent under a roof.
A grey sky is one of the quiet upsides of staying somewhere with room to spread out. You can slow the morning over coffee in the apartment, wait for the worst of it to pass and still fill the day without touching the car if you choose to. Check our apartments and rates to book your stay, and browse our Attractions page for the rest of what sits within walking distance of Victoria Square Apartments.
Image credit: HOTA, Home of the Arts